Scott Parazynski Interview

Meet One Of The Most Accomplished Men On Earth

Jim Clash: Can private industry do the job safely?

Dr. Scott Parazynski: A number of private vehicles are in various stages of maturity, and hopefully will be online by 2014 or 2015. A burgeoning industry of commercial spaceflight with NASA as an anchor tenant is a good one. It is American industry leading the charge and will be good for our economy ultimately. But there could be some early failures. When you have a for-profit company -- traditional business walking the line between risk management and making money -- it’s a dicey situation. Not all the fledgling companies will make it, but I’m very excited about Space X, Sierra Nevada and, of course, Boeing and Lockheed.

DSP: The thing I worry most about is NASA’s long-range mission. We do have ISS -- it has important science to do -- and I hope that in the next decade we’ll start to see rewards of its research that will improve our quality of life on Earth. That’s why we built it. But NASA also needs a long-range vision. Right now it’s amorphous: “Hey, why don’t we go visit an asteroid sometime?" Or, “Let’s go to Mars.” But without a timeline, that won’t happen. It just becomes discretionary funding that quickly gets canceled in times of austerity.

DSP: It is quite a dream to fly with your boyhood hero. I tell people it’s like getting a chance to play soccer with Pele or climb Mt. Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary. What is amazing about John is his humility. He just wanted to be called “John” or “Payload Specialist #2.” In fact, he said he would ignore us if we called him “Senator Glenn.” He also has a great sense of humor. We had a couple of experimental toadfish -- really ugly -- in the back of our spacecraft with electrodes in their inner ears to record adaptation to weightlessness. We nicknamed them “Payload Specialists #3 and #4.” So John says, “I’m just one step ahead of the toadfish.” Pretty remarkable. He was also gracious with people. One time we were at Kennedy Space Center for a CEIT -- Crew Equipment Interface Test -- and went to a local restaurant. Everybody there wanted John to hold their baby, pose for pictures and sign autographs. I don’t think he had a bite all evening, but he took time for every single person. He would say, “If people are interested enough in me and the space program to wait in line, I’m going to take time to talk to them.” That’s class.

JC: How about Glenn’s reactions aboard the flight itself?

DSP: When John flew Mercury Friendship 7 in 1962, he was basically wearing his spacecraft. He had no room to get up and float. We called him a “rookie” on our Shuttle flight [laughs]. He had this great sense of wonder experiencing first-time weightlessness in three dimensions, and in seeing the full planet, not just through a tiny porthole but through large Shuttle windows on several orbits. It was a profound life experience for him. He also worked hard on the many experiments he took part in. We did flips and silly astronaut tricks, and he did them right alongside us! He was as happy as anyone I’ve ever seen in space.

JC: What advice do you have for young people today?

DSP: Anything that’s going to mean something to you in life has to involve sacrifice. The key is to have big dreams, then have the tenacity to make them come true. I highly recommend math and science because those are languages of the future. One thing that sometimes happens as kids grow up is they lose track of what their big dreams were. They no longer pursue them with the same energy. And that’s what I try to coach kids not to let happen. Great things can and will happen if you pursue dreams. Even if you don’t achieve your ultimate life goal, the mere fact of having pursued it will open doors. You’ll meet people and be offered opportunities, and that may take you in directions that are even better.

JC: What’s left on your own bucket list?

DSP: I’ve been a diver since age 11 and am very interested in the oceans. I have relationships with companies building submarines, one of which wants to build a sub for full ocean depth. Maybe one day I can get down to Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench [as James Cameron recently did]. That would make a pretty neat trifecta for me!